Smoking Pot= Feminist Act!?!

August 21, 2007
By Samhita Mukhopadhyay
Is weed smoking a feminist act? Do you think men smoke more weed than women? Is that a proven fact? Have you ever been to the Bay Area? LOL. OK seriously, this article in the Stranger (and as a tribute to Hempfest) is about gender and weed smoke and how women don't smoke weed. Smoking pot is a guy thing. Guys are the ones who deal, buy, and smoke. In 2005, the U.S.Department of Health and Human Services stated that adult males were 50 percent more likely to have smoked marijuana in the last month than females. (Alcohol use showed only a 12 percent difference.) All illegal drugs show this approximate divide between the sexes (except illegally obtained prescriptions women use those in substantially higher numbers). Is this actually true? Or do women hide that they smoke weed more?
A very quick look at my friends, I would say half the women I know smoke weed all the time. Even in my women studies undergrad, I knew a lot of female stoners. In fact I have never attributed smoking weed to being a male activity. Perhaps this says something about the kind of women I hang out with, but this is seriously news to me. Reading more into the article, I did have to agree that media depictions of drug use are in general inaccurate and definitely sexist. The war on drugs is extremely racist and gendered with little conversation about how drugs affect the lives of young women, while being absurdly focused on the incarceration of young men.
Furthermore, the usual drug user is depicted as male. But on a much less serious note, maybe women don't like to look lazy. . .
Perhaps the obstacle to female toking is a fear of looking lazy. Getting stoned is, in effect, a great way to relax. Men are allowed to be lazy and being stoned is part of their farting, pajama-wearing, video-game-playing pantheon of acceptable male relaxation techniques. Since Jeff Spicoli made his debut in 1982's Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and continuing into the entire oeuvre of director Judd Apatow (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up), stonerdom is an accepted part of modern maleness. Their sloth is even kind of adorable. But modern women are not allowed to be lazy, adorable stoners. Women have to go to college (which they're now doing at higher rates than men), and then get their careers going quickly, before their biological clocks run out. Then they have to have kids and take them to all of their activities. There is no time for women to be slovenly and relaxed and if women do relax, it has to be at a gym.
I have never really thought about mainstream pot culture being sexist, I always thought about it as pretty corny, considering people of all different types smoke weed, not just middle class white dudes in California. But now that I do think about it, it does reproduce certain stereotypes.
I also don't appreciate women in general being depicted as people more obsessed with what they look like then with pleasure or having fun. I see that the author is trying to put a feminist spin on the female deviance of weed smoking, but he seems to rely on sexist tropes to prove his point.
For me, it is hard to talk about drug culture in the US without looking at the racial politics of the drug war and how for some "toking" is a fun activity that some people don't go to jail for, while others do. Understanding that, is pot cuture sexist? And is smoking weed a feminist act? Humor me people!
Posted on Feministing by Samhita Mukhopadhyay

I read this and it made me think. While I do know a few stoners my age most of them are male. I did just meet a nice stoner gal who is my age, but most gals over 50 don't seem to be stoners. Let me know I'm wrong about this, I hate to think it's just guys smoking after 50
take care
Doctor G :stoned:

My grand mother is 71 and she still smokes weed and I got a few female friends that damn near smoke more than me so naw,I doubt it man.

I'm 60, quite female, and I toke on a daily basis! And LyteSkin, we need your Grandmother HERE! The more of us oldsters here at C.c, the better! We need to get rid of the "young stoner dude" image!- Granny:hippy:

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Originally Posted by Storm Crow

I'm 60, quite female, and I toke on a daily basis! And LyteSkin, we need your Grandmother HERE! The more of us oldsters here at C.c, the better! We need to get rid of the "young stoner dude" image!- Granny:hippy:

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never, our legacy must live on!

i know PLENTY of female smokers......but as far as the oldheads i know that smoke, an overwhelming majority are male.

Cannabis magazines are ussually under the male intrests section.

I know a bunch of female smokers at work. I don't see how anyone can make generalizations like this. Rofl. It's so stupid.

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Originally Posted by mfqr

I know a bunch of female smokers at work. I don't see how anyone can make generalizations like this. Rofl. It's so stupid.

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ROFL at your av pic!

because people can be so narrow-minded. it's how stereotypes are formed. same with white people, black people, mexicans, and whatever race you want to insert.

what the fuck...are you guys serious???? ok..im high as shit b/c i just smoked straight thc from g, bongs.uh it doesnt matter if you're a guy or girl..i smoke everyday with my (male) boyfriend....why is that shit so important????

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Originally Posted by yoda

ROFL at your av pic!

because people can be so narrow-minded. it's how stereotypes are formed. same with white people, black people, mexicans, and whatever race you want to insert.

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hell yeah..mf

The guy who wrote the article probably just spends a lot of time here on cannabis.com where the majority are guys.

doctor G you havent posted in an eternity

WOW it is nice to see so may replies in so short a time.
THANK YOU Ladies, I felt the numbers were more even, old stoners tend to keep things low key by a long necissity.
The lady that wrote the article made it clear the media view did not reflect the reality of her environment.
And yes, this site does appeal to a male personality, but now I know there are more than a few ladies my age who share their wisdon and view with the younger folk who are willing to listen
Thanks Kids, it's nice you let us talk.
Oh Pixel, click on my name and check some of the old posts from 2005, I think you can keep laughing.
Thanks all
Doctor G
Yes vacation was nice, I like panning for gold, it gets me away from the city for a while:stoned:

not since women not weraring bras has such a femanist act caught my eye.........oh and bras are cool girls sometimes the twins need some sopport and shave the arm pits pleezzz

MadSativa, I have never understood why men insist that women be an impossible combination of prepubescent and adult female? Child face, hairless body (except for the pubes for some), childlike ways even turn some men on, combined with the adult traits- big (lactating sized?) breasts, a tiny waist, etc- I did a paper on it for Women's Studies. It just seems so crazy, if you take a step back and look at it in that light.

And we do need to shed the "young WASP male stoner" image! Yes, you guys are out there, and there are a lot of you. BUT until cannabis use is recognized as cutting across ALL age groups, ALL races and religious groups, it will not be "mainstream". You want LEGAL POT??? Dump the image- and anyway you are all going to be old stoners some day!

:thumbsup: Let's dump the "stoner kid" image! All of you non-stereotypic stoners, SPEAK UP! I'm female, a 60 teacher's aide and I've smoked pot for 40 years! :hippy: I'd lose my job if my bosses knew, so the forums are the only place I can really speak my mind. And I intend to keep doing just that!

WHO ARE YOU?

Granny:hippy:

????............ahhh I dont know what to add to that except the other day I saw a gorgeous woman and then she lifted her arm and it was like I was hit by a bat in the face, Im sorry im American (I know in other places & countries it can be differant) and I like the shaved look. But after that I was scared of the hot chick cause I didnt want to see it again. Im just not used to that bat in the face thing, and I am the MadSativa, and I value your thoughts, opinions, and values. But I am still a bit of an asshole its part of my job as a cannabis revolutionist.:pimp::pimp::pimp: